My daughter is currently learning to drive. Another five learner hours and she can sit her test and I can have a chauffeur when boozed. Neither of us can wait. We’re not impatient – we just like to do things at the right speed. Unlike Australia’s motorists.
This is not a rant about speeding, which for the record I think is inexcusable unless your wife’s waters have broken and the glove box is about to become a bassinet. This is a complaint about people driving too slowly, which is fast becoming a problem.
In the past 11 months and 115 hours, I’ve taught my daughter everything I know about safe driving. Not just the big ol’ basics but the finer details, such as driving to the conditions, no tailgating, never trust an indicator, don’t turn your wheel before turning in case you get collected from behind … I’ll even randomly cover the rearview mirror and ask what’s behind her because it’s as important as what’s ahead when the unexpected happens.
I’ve also taught her to KEEP LEFT UNLESS OVERTAKING, a golden rule that many of you appear to have forgotten.
One of the most dangerous things I see on Sydney’s roads isn’t speeding motorists but frustrated law-abiders simply wishing to adhere to the speed limit but are unable to because of selfish snails inching along in the outside lane at 40km/h in a 60 zone. If their wife’s waters have broken, the baby is coming out on the passenger seat!
In an attempt to do 60km/h, otherwise-safe motorists will resort to playing lane Tetris, merging, sliding, weaving … introducing a hazard where one shouldn’t exist. Unless the snail is turning in the not-too-distant future, it should cede to the slower lane, allowing faster cars – not speeding cars – to slide on by. Such a simple system reduces traffic congestion, risk of collision and blood pressure.
But we seem to underestimate the importance of such a system. Every Monday in my work inbox, I receive stats on the weekend’s road safety initiatives from NSW Police Media. Drink-driving, drug-driving, seatbelts … the same old safeguards. Essential, yes, but what about a crackdown on drivers not keeping left unless overtaking? Fine them. Ping them with two demerit points. That rusty old road sign on the side of the road doesn’t seem to be doing the job.
And what about a crackdown on drivers slowing down to glacial speeds when there’s a speed camera? You don’t get points back on your licence or jelly beans for how far south of the speed limit you are. Some go so slow they could have their portrait painted rather than their photo taken.
There are always exceptions but, on the whole, Australian drivers are the most considerate I’ve shared asphalt with. I somehow survived 10 years on Italian roads and saw manoeuvres that even Red Bull wouldn’t sponsor.
Near my wife’s Mediterranean fishing village, I was once overtaken by a man shaving while steering with his knees. In Palermo, Sicily’s chaotic capital, I swerved rather than drove. Cars were five abreast on what would have been a three-lane thoroughfare if anyone had bothered to paint lines on it. Stop signs were suggestions and red lights as optional as milk in coffee. Zebra crossings were less an aid for pedestrians and more a guide for emergency crews collecting their bodies.
Same goes for ride-share drivers. We curse and moan but are lucky in comparison to what I’ve seen overseas on less lawful laneways. Until you’ve had a white-knuckle ride in a cab in Cairo, Mumbai or Rio de Janeiro, you have little to complain about. A taxi driver in Manhattan once offered me his spliff! I accepted (but didn’t inhale!) if only so there was less left to impair him. I swear the plane back to Europe cruised more slowly than that taxi.
Regardless of how safe our streets are in Australia, and even with my daughter about to sit her test, I think it should be harder to get, and keep, your licence. Police will eventually catch those driving too fast, but what about those driving too slowly?
If you can’t do the speed limit, keep left and we’ll all be right.
Chris Harrison is a Herald journalist and Sydney driver.
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